Okay. I’ve been attempting to read Neil Gaiman’s American Gods for what feels like forever. I can’t get through it. Maybe if I had more time (it’s already way overdue at the library), I would venture onwards. Maybe not.

It’s a mind-bender, that’s for sure. The characters are realistic (in a sense) and the world is rendered beautifully to make it feel very normal at times. But then there’s the fact that several (most) of the main characters are either ancient gods or, in one case, dead. There are odd trips away from the “real” world to foray into what I can only describe as ‘god-land,’ in which accurate descriptions are apparently difficult. Well, whispers the English major in me, that’s clearly a way to force the reader to identify more closely with the main character, Shadow, who as a human is equally as confused as you are right now. He’s probably freaking out more than you are, despite the fact that he seems amazingly even-keel about the whole thing. Thanks, Major English, for whipping me back into shape.

Anyway, it was too much. I couldn’t feel the thread of the story taking me anywhere. The only thing that pulls all the odd disparate elements together is this idea that “there’s a storm coming,” which is, at best, vague and unhelpful though slightly ominous. Honestly, it makes me feel like there’s an old wizened Southern man in flannel and overalls speaking to me around the piece of wheat in his mouth, or perhaps a hand-rolled cigarette.

Anyway, I gave it up in favor of The Magician King by Lev Grossman, which is the sequel to The Magicians. In a sense, the books are similar in that they bring fantasy into “normal” life. But at least I’m finding The Magician King an interesting read that doesn’t completely gross me out every 15 pages or so.